Renewable energy driven on-road wireless charging infrastructure for electric vehicles in smart cities: A prototype design and analysis

The adoption of electrical vehicles (EVs) has increased due to the increasing concerns about fossil fuel shortages, rising costs, and environmental impacts. This increasing adoption of EVs significantly increase power demand on utility grids. Moreover the EVs require more time for charging compared to fossil fuel vehicles. To address these challenges, this study proposes a renewable energy-based on-road wireless charging (ORWC) infrastructureto reducing charging time and utilizing renewable energy within a smart city framework. This study develops a prototype of the ORWC system and examines its techno-economic and environmental benefits. Moreover, the study also evaluates annualized energy share, energy economics, and cost-effectiveness. The results of the proposed study indicate that the ORWC system in combination with RERs, effectively reduces the cost of energy from $0.112/kWh to $0.30/kWh and lowers carbon emissions from 76.9 tons/year to 29.5 tons/year. Furthermore, the results also reveals optimal energy distribution among different energy resources PV, BESS, and the grid. These results highlight that ORWC infrastructure can reduce peak load demand on existing grids and enhance the power density of EV charging systems. This has potential implications for future-oriented fast charging stations and policy development to support the widespread adoption of EVs. • Integration of RERs in ORWC minimizes reliance on fossil fuels. • ORWC system decreases annual carbon emissions from 76.9 to 29.5 tons. • Proposed ORWC model offers $29,934 in annual savings. • Renewable-powered ORWC system reduces EV charging time significantly. • Techno-economic analysis shows cost-effective ORWC infrastructure implementation.